I am in advanced ceramics, but it is only my second semester taking ceramics. I moved there this year from North Carolina but I've never even seen a ceramics class. Back home, I took three years worth of Carpentry/wood shop classes and I believe those classes gave me the foundation of hand skills I needed to be successful in ceramics.
The first semester in my beginning ceramics class I focused mainly on working to improve my throwing skills. I spent the entire semester thinking my projects would be better if I could only throw bigger and better. When I entered my second semester in my Advanced class, I quickly learned that generally, the finished glaze has a bigger impact on the project than the actual form does. At the start of the semester I thought I wanted a overall design theme of large projects. As time progressed I later decided that rather than just making large projects, I wanted to bring my projects to life with Raku. I then spent a majority of my time reading about and learning the way of the Raku.
Being among other advanced students I became rather specific with how I wanted my projects to turn out. The more time I spent with my peers the more I learned that if I wanted to bring a big boring bowl to life, I needed different designs and colors to add a whole new dimension and give the viewer the ability to see the work from a different perspective.
In the ceramics class room I learned that despite what I always thought growing up, I do have at least some sort of artistic talent. I also learned the value in going into a new class open minded because by the end of the year it may turn out to be your all time favorite class. That you're going to miss once you move on.
The first semester in my beginning ceramics class I focused mainly on working to improve my throwing skills. I spent the entire semester thinking my projects would be better if I could only throw bigger and better. When I entered my second semester in my Advanced class, I quickly learned that generally, the finished glaze has a bigger impact on the project than the actual form does. At the start of the semester I thought I wanted a overall design theme of large projects. As time progressed I later decided that rather than just making large projects, I wanted to bring my projects to life with Raku. I then spent a majority of my time reading about and learning the way of the Raku.
Being among other advanced students I became rather specific with how I wanted my projects to turn out. The more time I spent with my peers the more I learned that if I wanted to bring a big boring bowl to life, I needed different designs and colors to add a whole new dimension and give the viewer the ability to see the work from a different perspective.
In the ceramics class room I learned that despite what I always thought growing up, I do have at least some sort of artistic talent. I also learned the value in going into a new class open minded because by the end of the year it may turn out to be your all time favorite class. That you're going to miss once you move on.